One of the most talked-about scholarly works of the past fifty years, Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble is as celebrated as it is controversial.

Arguing that traditional feminism is wrong to look to a natural, `essential` notion of the female, or indeed of sex or gender, Butler starts by questioning the category `woman` and continues in this vein with examinations of `the masculine` and `the feminine`. Best known however, but also most often misinterpreted, is Butler`s concept of gender as a reiterated social performance rather than the expression of a prior reality.

Thrilling and provocative, few other academic works have roused passions to the same extent.